Review: DOGS by Red Theater Portrays Five Women in Red-Hot Competition
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Nancy S. Bishop is publisher and Stages editor of Third Coast Review. She’s a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and a 2014 Fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. You can read her personal writing on pop culture at nancybishopsjournal.com, and follow her on Bluesky at @nancyb.bsky.social. She also writes about film, books, art, architecture and design.
Review: In Remy Bumppo’s Dear Elizabeth, Two Poets Reflect on Their Lives and Work in Their Letters
A pair of poets, in love with words, are sort of, possibly, in love with each other. Or not. That’s the theme of Dear Elizabeth, an epistolary play by Sarah Ruhl. […]
Review: Linda Reiter Bewitches as Becky Nurse of Salem at Shattered Globe Theatre
Sarah Ruhl’s play, Becky Nurse of Salem, is a history lesson and a feminist reminder for 2024. The play being staged by Shattered Globe Theatre stars Chicago actor Linda Reiter […]
Review: Do You Like Tasteful Films About Famous Artists? Then You Should Skip Daaaaaali!
I have to admit I didn’t know how to begin this review or how to describe the film Daaaaaali! It’s not a biopic about the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali. Director Quentin Dupieux says […]
Review: A Book About Two Rabbits Sparks a Firestorm in Alabama Story by Ghostlight Ensemble
“Tell me a story.” That line is repeated by cast members in the prologue to Alabama Story, a play about a book for children 3 to 7. Set in Montgomery, Alabama, […]
Review: Ironbound at Raven Theatre Paints a Portrait of an Immigrant Woman Fighting for Survival—Although Her New Country Doesn’t Care
Darja is an all-American woman. She may be a Polish immigrant, escaping the wars and politics of her native land. But she has all the problems of her born-in-the-USA sisters. She […]
Review: Goodman Theatre’s Inherit the Wind Renews a Century-Old Courtroom Drama With 21st Century Spirit
Inherit the Wind at Goodman Theatre has no flashy costumes or rapid costume changes, no chorus or dance squad. It’s simply two hours of enthralling courtroom drama with lacerating wit about […]
Review: Catholic School Scandals Are a Familiar Story in Steep Theatre’s Happy Days Are Here (Again)
Steep Theatre’s world premiere play, Happy Days Are Here (Again) replays a familiar story (sexual abuse in the Catholic Church) and introduces a new one (a Palestinian adapting to American teen life) […]
Review: The Delicate Tears of the Waning Moon Portrays the Cruel Fate of Women Journalists in Latin America
The poetic title of Rebeca Aleman’s play, The Delicate Tears of the Waning Moon, may delude you into thinking her play is a sweet love story. But don’t expect a romcom […]
Opinion: Public Contest to Design New State Flag Is a Terrible Idea
The State of Illinois has announced a contest to gather designs for a new state flag. Design submissions are due by October 18. This is a horrendously bad idea. Unless one of […]
Review: Gwydion Theatre’s This Is Our Youth Portrays a Slice of 1982 Manhattan Life…in Existential Crisis
Kenneth Lonergan’s This Is Our Youth takes us back 40-some years … to an era when heavy-duty drugs were not only a path to pleasure (and sometimes pain) but the coinage of […]
Review: City Lit Theater Completes Trilogy on the Golden Age of Comics With The House of Ideas
City Lit Theater is finishing off local playwright Mark Pracht’s Four-Color Trilogy—about key moments in the history of comic book publishing—with The House of Ideas. Directed by former artistic director Terry McCabe, it’s […]